13286: Whatever Works, Yes?

Raw transcript:

I just moments ago
finished
being a guest on somebody else’s podcast
and a notion came up probably four or
five times during that podcast. Kind of
a recurring theme that I wanted to share
with you today and it’s all about
trusting yourself in a very particular
way and we’ll talk about that in this
episode of the VO Heroes podcast.
I want to thank uh Chris Barry uh who
had me on his coaching uncovered podcast
uh talking about coaching and you know I
said well I kind of snuck on here. I’m
not a coach. I’m a consultant. I don’t
ask questions that lead my clients to
the answers. If they ask me a question
I’m going to give them the answer. And
that’s the difference I think between
coaching and consulting. But he asked me
a question about how do I build my
business?
And it uncovered something that I’ve
kind of talked about with my peers,
uh, people that market products and
services to actors and voice talent and
writers and other performers about
rightsizing
your practice and being at peace with
that.
You know, there are lots of coaches,
business coaches in particular, who make
a whole living out of helping people
build their business and encouraging
them to build their business. And don’t
you want to 10x your business? And don’t
you want to uh increase the number of
people that you’re serving and make a
greater impact in the world? And you
know, it would be okay to do that, but
it’s not my priority. My priority is to
be an actor and a voice talent. And oh
by the way, I also train people on how
to narrate audio books and do other
voiceover things and build businesses as
a voice talent and um you know I I have
those things but even that business work
comes first
and you know there was like sort of a
like you know kind of a Scooby-Doo
moment uh like really you like you don’t
want to make your business bigger and
it’s like no I I really I really don’t
And the thing that I wanted to share
with you today is
I could give you advice
on what works for me in certain areas,
what I’ve seen work for others in
certain areas, but in the end, I want
you
to absolutely trust
that what makes you happy about your
performance career, your pursuit of
acting and voice work and writing,
whatever form that takes,
It’s great. It’s what you want. It’s
what you will
arrive at. It’s kind of water seeking
its own level. This is where it wants to
be. You know, one of the things that I
mentioned was uh my work comes first. My
client’s work comes first. If they book
a session with me and they get an
audition or a job, they I insist that
they go do that, right? And you know,
not that it’s a big uh a big decision
for them, but I don’t want them to feel
bad about saying to me, “Hey, I got an
audition. Can we reschedule?”
Absolutely. You know, yeah. Is it time
that I could have, you know, given to
somebody else and made some money? Who
cares? I want people to be successful.
Same thing with me. When we do sessions
with VO Heroes, uh, one of the slides
that comes up at the beginning of the
session is you may see this slide one
day. Instead of doing a session that
says, “At an audition, see you later.
will reschedu because the work comes
first and that’s what makes me
comfortable in running my business. So
the overall message that I have for you
here is whatever it is about how you run
your business that makes you happy and
makes you satisfied
and serves you as a human being and as
somebody who needs uh money and needs
support and whatever it is that makes
you comfortable about your business.
Note that, hang on to that.
Be resistant to people trying to talk
you out of it and doing it their way.
Even me, I, you know, listen, I’m just
offering potential solutions that I
think might work for some people who
find themselves in the positions that I
set up on these podcast episodes. But
whatever works for you. You know, I I I
sometimes are I’m sometimes a little
adamant about things that I think would
be hurtful,
but I want you to be able to have the
freedom to build your business your way,
to build your performance practice your
way, and to do it in the way that makes
you happy.
Because money is one thing, personal
happiness is something completely
different. And the two are related, but
what would you prefer?
I don’t know, some questions to ponder.
Uh, you can hit the like button if you
like what you’re hearing. You can
subscribe to the channel. You can uh hit
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when a new episode comes out. If you
want to join my mailing list, slide down
to the bottom of this page if you’re on
vheroes.com. Leave me a comment, but
also slide a little bit further and join
the mailing list. We’d be happy to have
you on it. I’d really appreciate that.
I’m David H. Lawrence the 17th. I thank
you very much for both watching and for
listening. and I will see you in the
next episode of the VO Heroes
podcast.

(from YouTube)